About Me

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Teenage Lunch Review

This review is for my son... who despite my best efforts to keep him a sweet little boy who only eats all-natural unprocessed foods, has become a famished teenager - with a teenage appetite for all types of convenience foods.

When he saw that Hamburger Helper now has Gluten-Free varieties, he BEGGED me to pick up a few boxes. My husband, who somehow managed to grow up eating this boxed "stuff" nearly every day of his youth, stood beside me gleefully loading the grocery cart with box after box as I stood by horrified. How on EARTH could this be healthy? But sometimes it's easier to let starving teens & nostalgic husbands have their way than to refuse something just because I can't see the nutritional benefit. So the Hamburger Helper came home with us. Many, MANY boxes came home with us.

Now the funny thing is that my guys almost NEVER eat ground-beef... and they like ground turkey even less. I know it's been at least a couple years since we've bought anything at all resembling hamburger, so I was truly curious to see what the guys would come up with to mix into this. Boy was I surprised.

Todays lunch was prepared by my son, who is ever so proud to have created a "healthy version" of this particular boxed monstrosity. One box of Hamburger Helper mixed with two cups of frozen broccoli-mix AND two cups of shelled edamame turned what could have been a dietary nightmare into something that even I have to admit... wasn't bad! Oh I'm sure I have enough sodium floating around in my veins to raise my blood pressure at least a zillion points, but all in all it wasn't the nightmare it could have been. And that fake-cheese? Well in a guilty I-shouldn't-be-enjoying-this-because-it-must-be-awful-for-me sort of way, it was actually kind of tasty!

Tomorrow's lunch will be raw. Pure, raw, cholesterol & box-free raw foods. But for today, at least the boy gets to pretend he's "normal" ...whatever that may mean.